Skakel Testifies Trial Lawyer Told Him: 'You Will Never See The Inside Of A Courtroom'

Says He Expected Michael Bolton, Harrison Ford Might Be Called As Witnesses In 2002 Trial

VERNON — — While on trial in 2002 for the widely publicized 1975 murder of a Greenwich teen, Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was asked to sign an autograph for a young spectator who kept a scrapbook of notorious court cases.

The request, Skakel testified Thursday during a hearing in his latest bid for freedom, came from an unlikely source — his trial lawyer, Mickey Sherman.

"I was flabbergasted with the nonchalant attitude," Skakel testified.

With Sherman watching from the courtroom gallery, Skakel reiterated a theme his current lawyers have returned to repeatedly in the first seven days of the Superior Court hearing: that Sherman was obsessed with his own celebrity, at his client's expense.

Skakel, 52, is the nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, the assassinated presidential candidate. He was convicted of Martha Moxley's murder in June 2002 at age 41 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He was not charged with the teen's murder until 2000, when he was 39. His trial received widespread publicity because of his ties to the Kennedys.

Last October, Skakel was denied parole after he protested his innocence in emotional testimony before the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles. Skakel is now relying on a habeas corpus petition, often known as a writ of last resort, to get out of prison based on claims that Sherman did a poor job defending him at trial.

On Thursday, a talkative Skakel portrayed Sherman as a lax and arrogant lawyer in love with the fame, travel and fortune he said Sherman sought for representing Skakel in his 2002 trial. Skakel said Sherman failed to hire important expert witnesses, did not pursue important evidence and did not track down a witness he said could support his alibi that he was watching TV with his brothers at about the time Moxley was killed in October 1975.

"I was kept away categorically ... with anything legally with this case," Skakel said during questioning by Hubert J. Santos, Skakel's current lawyer, who called Skakel to the witness stand before a crowded courtroom Thursday.

Skakel, dressed in a white collared shirt and black blazer, walked without restraints to the witness stand as two large corrections officers stood guard throughout his entire testimony.

He offered his full name, Michael Christopher Skakel — a middle name he later explained he gained at Roman Catholic confirmation — while being sworn in and he listed the address of the prison as his residence.

Skakel said Sherman talked about needing a "war chest" for his defense — "five million bucks" — and at one point said he was told that "the ship is dead in the water." Skakel said, "I took it to mean we needed more money."

Skakel said Sherman was not hired to handle the press but he would often hang out with reporters and writers, arranging blind dates for some and taking limos to lunch with others.

"[Sherman] said he was a media whore," Skakel said.

Skakel recalled after a lunch break at his 2002 trial seeing Sherman get out of a "huge white Lincoln limo. " He learned Sherman had just been with author Dominick Dunne, whose book "A Season in Purgatory,'' based on the Moxley murder, was credited for re-igniting interest in the case. A TV movie was later based on the book.

Skakel said he asked Sherman, "What the hell are you doing?" He said he made it clear to Sherman he was not to have any contact with Dunne but he said Sherman dismissed his concerns.

Sherman testified last week that he was hired by the Skakel family, in part, to deal with the media since the case was so high-profile.

When Skakel met Sherman before the trial, Skakel testified, they talked about money and golf, rarely about the case. Skakel said that of about 16 billed visits Sherman took to Skakel's Florida home before the trial, "probably four, maybe five" were spent talking about the case.

Skakel said that during one of those visits after his 2000 arrest, Sherman told him, "You will never see the inside of a courtroom."

Skakel said he was surprised to learn Sherman would not call certain witnesses at his trial, including actor Harrison Ford and singer Michael Bolton. Skakel testified that a former student from the Elan School — a treatment center in Maine for teenagers with addiction problems where Skakel went in the 1970s — whom Sherman was with had said, in front of the celebrities, that Skakel never admitted to the murder while at the school.